This race has been the badboy I have been looking forward to, and training for all summer, actually more like for the past 10 months. All of my races since Rocky Raccoon, have been sacrifices on the alter of the Leadville 100, each one planned specifically getting me to the goal of crossing the finishing line at the Race Across the Sky in Leadville, Colorado. The second 100 official modern 100 mile race in the United States, this race has been around for 30 years, and crosses the mountainous area surrounding the highest incorporated city in Colorado. It passes a 11,000ft pass twice, and a 12,600ft pass twice. In short, this race is not a joke, and I did my best to train with the respect this race deserves.

Since my finish at Silver Rush 50, I had been on a modified training plan, fewer miles, but high quality ones. I got in another crossing of Sugarloaf Pass, and Hope Pass (for a total of 3 crossings, and 2 double crossings), while moving out of, and getting my house sold. I had spent the afternoon of the 15th closing on my house, the last vestige of the marriage that officially ended in June.

For me, this race was my doorway into my new life. I felt like I needed something more from this race than just a waltz across the finish line (which I was not at risk for regardless). I needed the experience of running this race, of pushing myself beyond what may seem sane, and into the surreal, meditative land that comes when you push your body past your own belief, and fall into a type of bliss that I had only found in ultra running. But, as I found in February, at RR100, this is heightened to a whole new level in 100 mile races. I was looking forward to this. Its addicting, and I needed it.

As I parked my car on the Summit of Fremont Pass to get some extra sleep at altitude on Wednesday August 15th, just 2.5 days from go time, I felt confident. My crew would be coming up on Friday, and I would spend the next couple of days volunteering at packet pick up handing out free posters on Thursday, organizing my gear in the bins my friend Lisa had loaned me, and acclimate a bit more.

My running buddy Elizabeth, and her friend/crew chief, Tammy, showed up on Thursday, as did Jessica with her fiancé. It was neat getting to spend some time ‘relaxing’ with friends who had a sense of the challenge we were facing. Haze sat over the mountains, and the smoke that had plagued the mountains this year from fires all over the country came up in conversation. I dismissed it as just haze. I couldn’t let myself think about fire haze, those particulates, I knew would wreak havoc on my asthma, the one thing I only had so much control over. I made a mental note that my inhalers would need to be my constant companions on this run, and dismissed it, while gazing into the haze that obscured the mountains not 5-10 miles from Leadville almost completely.

Friday morning came, and I woke up on Fremont Pass feeling happy and rested. I went down into town, cruised through the expo, running into my Runners Roost friends, Marissa was pacing, and a couple Roost Team Runners were there ready to run. I was happy to know that I would have familiar faces out there with me.

I met up with the other runners at the place Elizabeth rented off 6th and Pine, and we wandered over to the pre-race meeting. Lisa, one of my crew, and the runner who I had paced the year before met us there, and we listened to the instructions, the warnings, and the course changes (there would be extra miles added due to a trail change coming into Winfield). We all chanted with the long time race staff, and new, “I commit, I wont quit”. This is how the meeting ends every year. Each runner is asked to commit to not give up. I left ready to run.

I spent the night in a spare room at the place Elizabeth rented, and woke with Jenn next to me, she had arrived late Friday night and found me asleep already. In the darkness of 230am, everyone crawled out of bed, and prepared themselves. I pulled my Mizuno kicks on my feet, tied them tight, and at 3:40am, wandered out the front door to find out place in the starting chute.

The Race – Start to Powerine

“This is a gift,it comes with a price,Who is the lamb? Who is the knife?Midas is King, and he holds me so tight,And turns me to gold in the sunlightThis is a gift”– Florence and the Machine

The plan was for Elizabeth, Samantha, and myself to stay together as long as possible, helping to keep each other on track. This strategy had worked amazingly well at Rocky Raccoon 100, and while this was a totally different race, I hoped it would help us all get

Left to Right: Jessica, me, Elizabeth and Samantha

through the early portions of the race. The gun went off and so were we.

We did a great job staying together as we ran the first 6 miles, dropping off to use the restroom in the woods, catching up to each other, and maintaining an almost perfect pace. When we arrived at Matchless Boat Ramp, right after hitting the Turquoise Lake Trail, the ladies dropped off to hit the restroom. We had agreed we wouldn’t stop and wait for each other in these circumstances, so I kept running. I also felt lucky, because there was no conga line I was stuck behind. Everyone I was near was running where we needed to run and hiking where we needed to hike.

I thought the ladies would catch up to me quickly like they had before, but that wasn’t to be. I cruised along the trail, making it into Mayqueen only 5-6 minutes behind my planned split. In my mind, this was perfect. Better to be a little bit slow, than a little bit fast at this stage of the game. I was happy to see my crew all set up, everything went perfectly and I was out in no time. Only 2 minutes lost there. The crew said they heard Elizabeth’s number called as I was ready to leave, but I wasn’t wasting time waiting, we had agreed, we were running our own races, together as much as possible, but I had no idea how far back they actually were, and I couldn’t risk losing time hanging out, so I headed.

The trail was exactly as I remembered from Training runs, and was able to get easily around the slower runner without any issue on the flats and downs. I found more folk to talk to and run with, and before I knew it was running down Powerline. I felt pretty good at this point, but made an effort to reel it in, no reason to

Almost to MayQueen!

blow the quads at this point in the race. I was close to perfectly on my splits, a couple off so I wasn’t all that worried. Just before the last real down hill, we came up on a gentleman with a cooler, handing out coke and water, telling runners just not to die on his property. I told him he was an angel on the mountain as I cruised by, snagging a coke along the way… no reason to say no to free calories!

I got to the bottom of Powerline feeling strong. I swapped out my gear and headed to hatchery.

Powerline to Twin Lakes

I left Powerline ready to tackle the long section of road. I came into hatchery with porta-potty business to tend to, but was not feeling the best overall. As I left, Samanthas husband let me know that she had just come through. I thought this meant that she had come in and left in the minutes I was taking care of business, so I booked out, hoping to catch a running partner. I planned on running most, if not all of the road headed into Treeline, but quickly started to understand why that section of the race is dreaded. It is completely exposed to the sun, and I started to heat up. With the sun directly on me, I started to struggle with getting calories in. I settled into a solid run walk pattern, but knew I was losing time. Samantha, it turned out, had been behind me, and caught up to me at a run. She was moving strong, and at that point I wasn’t able to keep up. I had built in a two hour buffer and really didn’t understand how much of that I was going to lose in this section. After Treeline, the course is mostly uphill, and I couldn’t get my body into a good pattern. I was hungry, but struggled getting calories in. I felt myself cramping, and just forced myself to keep going. I got passed by a few people, but everyone seemed to be struggling here. The trail was more uphill than I had remembered in training, and the heat was taking a toll.

Halfpipe came out of no where, and I did my best not to lose any time, but again, the going felt harder. I knew something was wrong,

but nothing that would normally fix it, was fixing it. Drinking more out of my camelback? Nope. Eating? Nope. I was confused, but

Running down into Twin Lakes

there was nothing to do but keep moving, and I did. When I made the Mt. Elbert fluid only aid station, I knew it was all down into Twin Lakes, and I did my best to run all of it, but the cramping in my sides slowed my run. When I dropped into Twin Lakes, I was hurting, and ready to figure out how to make things better.

My crew had things ready when I came in, I chowed on potatoes, but continued to feel fatigued. I felt like waiting wasn’t the answer, so it was time to move on. I made my way through the aid station, where I saw Coach David from Runners Edge. He came over and asked how I was doing. I told him, and he instructed me to drink more, to focus on water. I then saw Ben, who gave the same instructions. Water, focus on hydration…

It was time to face the beast.

Hope Pass to Hopeless Aid Station…

“Regrets collect like old friends,here to relive your darkest momentsI can see no way, I can see no wayAnd all of the ghouls come out to play,And every demon wants his pound of flesh,But I like to keep some things to myself,I like to keep my issues drawn,It’s always darkest before the dawn”– Florence and the Machine

I left to cross the field to the base of Hope Pass, and as I neared the water crossing a thought hit me… the GU Brew! It has way more salt than I am used to, and I switched to it more recently. I had worried about this, so my crew had dropped to one tab per camelback periodically, but that may have still been too much. Oversalting would add up to what was happening, but now my options were limited. I had a pack full of the GU Brew, but there was no way around drinking it to Hopeless. I pulled out my poles, and started up. No stopping. Constant pace. I knew how to do this, but I felt myself draining, as I became more and more off balance. I was also feeling my lungs tighten. I needed to get to Hopeless, I needed fresh water, I needed electrolytes without so much salt.

I talked to others, giving them encouragement too, it helped me to feel like I was helping someone else get up this thing, but I was fading

Crossing the River, outbound. I was happy to stick my head in the water as I crossed, it felt really great!

fast.

Jessica and Elizabeth passed me as I felt I was slowing to a crawl, I wasn’t about to alarm them, so I just let them go ahead, knowing how close to Hopeless I was. We needed to run our own races, and I was not about to make them feel like they needed to stop or slow for me. I couldn’t live with that, so I focused on moving, one foot, then the other moving up the hill. Through the last of the trees… as I came into the station, I was worn down, and in need of real water, like Coach David had said back in Twin Lakes. I asked the volunteers to dump what was in my pack and refill it with water, but my lungs were still tightening, and I was out of it.

I felt myself wavering a bit when I stood, I knew this feeling well. Dehydration was setting in, and I needed to stomp it down. Fixing that would help fix everything else, but what else could I do? I wracked my brain, what was my body telling me? It was telling me food, it was telling me water, and my lungs were telling me air, with what felt like endless cramps low in my chest. Time to take care of business.

A volunteer asked me what I needed and I asked for my inhaler out of my pack, hoping to not even take it off. They pulled it out, looking concerned, and as soon as they saw me use it, asked me to sit down, which I did. I was upset with myself. I had made huge mistakes with switching my hydration nutrition 2 weeks before the race, and now my lungs were revolting. This should fix it, but I had a moment, feeling stupid, feeling like I put my race at risk not thinking through things. I knew what worked for me, and I should have stuck with it. I broke the rules, and I was paying for it, but I knew I would recover. I felt better than I had at Greenland 50k a year and a half before, when I had bounced back like a ping pong ball from hell, so I could bounce back from this if I did what I knew I needed.

As I was processing this in my head, the volunteer got an EMT to come over to look at me, and they moved me to a chair, rather than the log I was sitting on. They took one look at me and offered me electrolytes. Yes, that’s step 1, thank you! I told them about the salt, and they agreed, I was oversalted, so they gave me water as well, and cheese sticks for food. I was ready to sit for 5 minutes, to let things settle, but I had every intent of leaving. I could not stay here. I needed time for some of the electrolytes to settle in, but movement was an absolute necessity, I couldn’t stay here. As I sat, I became cold, I could feel the electrolytes helping, but not enough yet, I drank more. I pulled on my jacket, and they gave me a sleeping bag for my legs as I shivered. I wasn’t fighting their help, I knew every bit would get me closer to leaving. I was still upset, and panicked, but I knew I had it in me to finish; this race was not over for me yet. I wasn’t about to give in. Not to this, not to my asthma, not to by mistakes, everything passes in these races, I knew that in my heart, and needed this too to pass.

After 15 minutes, I felt like I was as ready to go as I was going to be, so I pulled off the sleeping bag to go. A volunteer came over, and told me they were thinking I needed to go back to Twin Lakes, to which I disagreed, so they asked if I would talk to one of the Doctors. Minutes ticked. I heard the GPS beeping, indicating the minutes slipping away. I felt ready to go, I knew I was ready to go, I was pacing. The Doctor told me to sit back down, and told me he needed me to eat more and sit in the sleeping bag more, that he thought I needed to go down but would talk if I gave it more time. I had a mini break down. The aid station volunteer asked me what was wrong, and I told her I wasn’t quitting. The doctor had said I was going back down, but I wasn’t having it. I wasn’t quitting. I had come too far, run too hard for my asthma to be the reason they sent me down. The aid station volunteer sent a text to my crew in Winfield, letting them know medical was holding me, but I knew they wouldn’t get it until after they left. In my head, all I could think was “I am not quitting, I am not a quitter, and you can’t make me, I’ll show you I can finish this”. But I felt helpless too. This was an area I couldn’t be the Punk Rock Rabbit, I had to do as I was told. If I disobeyed, I would be DQ’d for sure, and possibly banned from future events. I had to play inside the flexible, and ever changing rules medicine had, but how could I help the people now in charge of making the rules for me understand?

The doctor came over, and I told him, I wasn’t quitting, what did I have to do? “Walk around the aid station, maybe do some running. Drink more water”, and they may let me go, so I did, but the minutes ticked by. I wasn’t going down. They kept holding me. I felt like I was in hell, the aid station name could not have held more significance for me in that moment. I felt so trapped. I felt so desperate. A volunteer told me I still looked out of it, but I knew I wasn’t, I was thinking clearly, I was over come with panic. I had to go. An the minutes ticked by. Beep, Beep, Beep…

I went back, a few more minutes, a few more minutes, 15 more minutes they told me…. I jogged around, I walked, I needed to go if I was going to finish. I needed to go! But before I could leave I needed the Doctor’s blessing, and it wasn’t forthcoming. I went back, knowing it was getting too late to make the Winfield cutoff, one last time to ask to go. I knew, if the doctor delayed me again, my chances would be completely gone, if he said yes, I might have a fighting chance.

I went over, I explained again, I had been jogging, I had drank, I had run, I felt fine, I needed to go. He looked at me, and told me I could go ahead and go! Not wanting anyone to have a chance to change their minds, I went to my pack, picked my things up and went. It was well into the 4pm hour, I didn’t know if I could make it to Winfield, but I wasn’t about to quit. There was no room, for anything, nothing but movement. I felt like I had escaped the spiders web, and it was time to run now.

Hopeless to Winfield (aka fighting to stay alive)

“Shake it out, shake it out,and its hard to dance with the devil on your back,so shake him offand I’m done with my graceless heart,so tonight I’m gonna cut it out and then restart,cause I like to keep my issues drawnIts always darkest before the dawnShake it out”– Florence and the Machine

I was intent on keeping good form going up the remainder of the pass, and moved up the hill without too much trouble. I passed others, and I maintained a strong pace. As I crossed the timing mat up top, I collapsed my poles, convinced that I could run faster without them, and started down the hill. I struggled with managing the loose rocks for the first quarter mile, and was worried about my ability to make it down with the speed I needed, without rolling an ankle, if I didn’t use my poles, so I pulled them back out. It had been over a year since I had used the poles for downhill running, but quickly got back into the groove. Using them to stabilize my steps, I picked up speed rapidly.

I came up on another runner using poles, but moving so slowly, and asked her if she knew how to use them. She was the first I had seen

trying as hard as me to make it down. I wanted to help her. I had tried to encourage others to run as I went by, but she was the first that didn’t look defeated. She looked like a fighter. She said no, so I showed her as I ran, and before I knew it I had a companion coming down Hope Pass. I asked her what her name was, and she said Jane. We talked about how fast we would have to move at Winfield in order to make it through, but I was convinced we would both make it, if what the race organizers had said about the new trail were true. Near the bottom of the pass, I rolled my ankle, and she saw it, but just as I had done for her, encouraging her to use her poles to keep a faster pace, she encouraged me to keep it moving. I knew she was right; there was no room for pain here. Only running.

When we made the turn onto the new trail, the course marshal’s told us we had another 4-5 miles to go… What the F***?!?!? 4-5 more miles? I felt my heart sink, the task was now far more daunting. It was 530pm, we had a long way to go on an unknown trail that is now well over a mile farther than I thought it would be. I shouted back to Jane that we would still make it we just needed to run! No negativity, only running, there was no room for anything else.

It was at this moment, the race morphed into something entirely different for me. This was no longer about finishing; this was about

Trevor and Jenn running into Winfield

proving that I wasn’t the type to quit. I wasn’t the type to give up to circumstance, or other people’s fears for or about me ad my health issues. Yeah, I have asthma, so what? Sure I had heart surgery when I was 26. So what? That was a part of me, and one that had stolen so much from me as a kid. These are things, things that have no place here. They had no room here. There was no space in me for those poisonous thoughts, only me and this trail, and running like I was free, and like my life depended on it. I knew I had something more in me, and now was the time to find that, and make this happen. If I were going to miss the cut off at Winfield, it wouldn’t be because I ever gave less than my all. I would make the aid station staff see that I pushed myself to the bitter end. I wasn’t about to go out without a fight.

With this determination I called back to my friend, who I realized I had dropped, and forced myself along this new section of trail I had never seen before. With my GPS dead, I had no way of knowing how far I had come, or even what time it was.

Driven by the need to make the cutoff at Winfield, I ran on, power hiking a few uphill sections, but I was not giving up. Anything that wasn’t a steep up, I ran. I tried to get others to run with me, I didn’t want to be alone in making this fight, I wanted us to all fight tooth and nail to get in. So what if we fought and still ended up missing the cut, at least we went down fighting.

I felt like an hour had been stolen from me, that I was set up to not make it, but the Doctors had let me go, giving me even the slightest chance, and I wasn’t going down without a wicked fight. Tooth, nail, bone and blood. Nothing was stopping me from putting it all out there. If I was going to get cut, I may be the only person to know it, but I would no I hadn’t quit, that I had fought every second to stay in the race, and finish.

I saw Coach David, and the Roost Team, I saw Samantha, Jessica and Elizabeth. I shouted back I had been held by medical as I ran by so they wouldn’t worry. They were all in the game, I was making time, but this would be close. Coach yelled to me not to quit, so keep going. I saw Winfield far below me, the trail kept going up, this was a sick joke! But I wasn’t quitting, I ran on. With no warning, I saw the trailhead sign, but was told a half-mile left! A half-mile and little time to do it, the cut off was on us, but I could hear the screaming at Winfield below. I ran. I ran hard. There was no time to rest, the time to rest would come when I finished this, but it wasn’t now. I saw several people standing on the road, yelling at us to run! All I could think was “I’m running as hard as I can!” so they ran with the 3 of us coming down the road, turning, shouting “run!”

I was 100% tunnel vision now, but I saw Jenn pop out of nowhere, screaming at me to run, telling me I was awesome, but to run, and I ran. I heard, my name getting yelled below me, my crew was down, the road, shouting me to come down the road. I made the turn, and saw the timing mats, and was directed over them, to the scale. I stopped to wait for one, but was directed by race staff to another, which I stood on, and held my breath… I couldn’t get cut now, not because of weight… the numbers popped up, 193lbs! I had gained 4 pounds, which confirmed I had oversalted, but that was fine now. I just needed to get out an run. I stepped back over the mat, and was ready to get Becky and go. I saw my blue inhaler, and told the crew to put it in Becky’s pack, I would se it and run, but I had a second, so I used it while my pack was prepped. I told the crew, no more GU Brew, water only. They pulled my pack on me, handed me my muscle milk, which I drank half of, and walked with my potatoes, eating them and walking quickly up the road, as Heather strapped my new GPS on my wrist. There was no time to waste, I thanked them, and was off, following my pacer, Becky, up the road. I let her know I needed to power hike this up to recover, and filled her in on the last leg of the race, but that my new goal was to catch Elizabeth and Jessica.

Winfield to Twin Lakes

“Run fast for your mother,run fast for your father,run for your children, for your sisters and your brothersleave all your love and your longing behindyou cant carry it with you if you want to survive”– Florence and the Machine

I was still in this thing, I had fought to make it this far, and the fight wasn’t over, not by a long shot, but it was time to push more. This well of determination felt endless, and now I had a friend to help me keep drawing from it.

I knew I was a long shot, but I needed something to push me. We agreed that I could not stop for any breaks on Hope Pass, and we

Headed back up to the Hope Pass Trail, on the new trail section with my pacer behind

didn’t. We made out way up the mountain, Becky singing to me, telling me stories of her recent trip to South America, and cracking jokes when possible. My crew had made me hummus on a tortilla, which Becky used to lure me up that mountain. Becky would let me know when we passed a previous minute per mile average, and kept going onwards, and upwards. We passed runner, after runner.

Our headlamps were pulled out shy of the summit, but I didn’t care, now, I wasn’t going out without a fight. We would make those cut offs, I would see those Dr’s again, and show them how strong I was, that they were right to let me go, and then go to Twin Lakes, and make that cut off too.

Becky and I came up with a game plan as we crossed over the summit of Hope Pass, trying to recruit other runners to commit to running all the way down the mountain to make the cut off, but few would even respond to that. We would divide and conquer Hopeless Aid Station, she would refill my camelback while I got food, and we would go. No time to waste. And we didn’t, but I did go to the EMT, and Doctors to show them I was alive and kicking, they were amazed how well I was going, and I even gave them hugs for letting me leave, then booked, there was just no time to waste on anything, but I learned long ago, grace goes a long way to keeping myself moving and happy. They had just done their job, they did what they thought was right, and I owed them my thanks for that.

A half mile out of Hopeless, I realized my headlamp was on the low setting, so I switched it to high, and ran found myself able to pick up the pace again. As I heard Becky falling behind as she tried to raise the crew to let them know what I would need, I told her if I dropped her, to catch up on the flats, and then let it all out. I ran that pass like it was daylight, I ran that pass like I was on fresh legs and like it was a training run.

I realized I had dropped Becky but shouted back and she could still hear me so I asked her to get my jacket and I took it off and dropped it on the ground for her to grab, and ran. Without the heat, I felt even faster, and before I knew it was at the bottom, I let out a yell of defiance at the pass as I ran on.

I felt good, no I felt great. I felt the best I had all day, I was in my element, this was my world. Sometimes, on training runs on Bergen Peak, or in Deer Creek Canyon, I would fall into a trance, almost, as I ran. It would become me and the trail. It’s like everything in that moment exists in slow motion, every step is intentional, but my focus would hone in so tightly that that step was the only thing in the universe that mattered at that moment, then the next, and the next. This is where I was. I have come to run for this feeling, its so freeing, and I was there. 60 miles in, and as I ran down the pass, I felt like my soul was raised up to the universe, bared out, briefly pure in this movement.

I felt graceful, like I was in a dance with the mountain, and I had found my home again. I felt this in SR50, RR100, and CP25. This was where I needed to be. This was how things needed to be for me right at this moment. I had come into the race seeking this feeling, and even in the moment, I didn’t feel like I had achieved, it, because I was so absorbed by the purity of movement.

I broke free of the pass, and let whoop and a shout into the sky, “I made it down!” I could see Twin Lakes in the distance, but the time to rest was still a long way away. I still had to prove that I could make this cut off, and then each after that. It was time to keep running.

Becky caught me shortly after the river crossing. We could hear the people in Twin Lakes yelling. Becky was on the radio and heard they were still letting runners through, so we ran, Becky had no mercy, and I didn’t want it, running was the only thing there was to do so I ran.

We crossed into the parking lot, the guy in grey was there from Winfield and he yelled at me to go, saying he remembered me from Winfield and I could do it again, but I had to run, so I did. Jenn and Heather caught me crossing the parking lot, and as I ran up the road, handed my poles to someone, and cranked it out, I had to run! I had to make it. I heard my crew telling me things, telling me I had to look good, I had to look strong to get through, but all I knew was I had to run. No niceties, I didn’t have room for that. If they were going to let me through, the determination in my soul would shine through. As we came up to the Aid station, a staff directed us to the timing mat, and then the lady with the scissors stepped out in front of my path. I knew her. She was the cut lady. I had begged her to let Lisa through at MayQueen a year before. I knew her word was final. It was her job to be stoic. It was her job to enforce these rules.

She said no more runners were coming through, that it was done… my legs gave out, and I fell on the ground. I started crying; I don’t think I have cried that hard in a long time. All I could think was how hard I ran for so long, how I tried, how I hadn’t lost time because I quit, but because of my asthma, and how I had fought, but it wasn’t good enough… Honestly, in that moment, I was crushed. My crew reminded me that being held for over an hour at Hopeless wasn’t my fault, but at that second, it was little consolation. My race was over, and I was nowhere near ready for it to be over. I was utterly overwhelmed by emotion, and really didn’t give a crap who saw it.

After… well, actually I have no idea, I pulled it together, stood up, and my crew offered me assistance, which I refused. I had run all the way in, I was not about to do anything other than walk with my head held high. I was not happy with how things turned out, but I knew I never quit. I knew that I ran stronger in that last 15 miles than I had run in any ultra, or any race, ever. There had been no quit in my brain, only running. I had done what I actually set out to do, and I walked away feeling undefeated.

My crew stayed with me, offering me food, and telling me how proud of me they were, and I absolutely believe them. They are my friends, my supporters, they may not be related to me by blood, but they are part of my family.

I may not have gotten that buckle, but I ran without ever letting myself give in, and it would have been so easy to, so many times after I got to Hopeless the first time. Does this make not finishing any easier? Not really. I have something to prove now. So many people helped me get to Leadville, so many people helped me get to mile 63 in Twin Lakes. There are too many people to let down. So I will be going back next year. I will be getting that buckle, not just for me, but for all the people who sacrificed along with me. So they can know their sacrifices, their time, and their faith in me were worth it.

“I commit, I won’t quit”. I meant it when I chanted it with the rest of the runners in the pre-race meeting. I still haven’t given up, I still haven’t quit.. Even though the race in 2012 ended with me walking away without crossing that finish line, I never quit, and won’t until I cross that finish line, with my head held high.

“and I’m damned if I do, and I’m damned if I don’tso here’s to drinks in the dark at the end of my road,and I’m ready to suffer, and I’m ready to hope…shake it out shake it out,and its hard to dance with the Devil on your back,so shake him off”– Florence and the Machine

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Nice work. It is great that you were able to pull through and get over back into twin lakes. That must have been devasting to be cut on time. Now the internal begins about whether you will take the race on again next year if not when:-). I ended my race last year at twin lakes after giving 110%. But there was nothing to be done. So now I am training up to crush next summer and finish that damn race.

Thanks for sharing Trevor! You killed Hope Pass. You are are one strong person to have been held and not let that get you down. You persevered after a low moment. You are a hero for getting back up and pushing with everything you had. It will be yours next year!